Mopping up Spilled Milk

Audio By Carbonatix

When our oldest son grew out of the sippy-cup phase of development and started drinking out of a glass like Mom and Dad, it took him a while to get the hang of it. Like most kids his age, his hand-eye coordination wasn’t exactly stellar, and he had some trouble keeping the cup right-side up. Over it would go, again and again, and my wife and I found ourselves diving to block the crack in the table or jumping to dodge a sudden current of grape juice.

We were always wiping up puddles on the floor, and as a young parent, I wasn’t so thrilled about it. I wanted everything to be perfect—which at the time meant that I wanted my kids to grow up without making mistakes. Even small ones. It was inconvenient to keep cleaning up after a two-year-old. His foibles at the dinner table were interrupting my conversations, making the furniture sticky, and staining my pants.

So, I complained about it, often and loudly. As I wiped up my son’s most recent spill and refilled his glass (with a prayer), all I could think about was how ridiculous those messes were. Why couldn’t he learn? In the midst of my bantering and frustration, my wife served as the voice of sanity. “Honey,” she’d say, handing me a stress ball, “he’s two.”

You know, usually when people use the phrase “Don’t cry over spilled milk,” they mean that we shouldn’t make a big deal out of something that’s small. I mean, what we’re talking about here is a puddle of 2% or skim. It’s not world poverty or pancreatic cancer. There are bigger things to get upset about, of course. And while I agree that’s most of the analogy, I think there’s another angle to it too.

Let’s face it, even though spilled milk isn’t catastrophic, it can definitely make a mess of things. It’ll get crusty in carpet, and if nobody cleans it off the floor, it’ll turn sour and start to stink. Spilled milk is something small, yes, but it’s also something that happens easily and regularly. So, I think that part of the point here is there’s no use mourning certain small mistakes and failures. Life is too short to get hung up on the little stuff—everybody spills milk once in a while.

How about you? What’s your perspective on failure? Are you learning to be more compassionate with those who disappoint you? Are you learning to forgive some little things? Or are you spending your time crying over the little things?